The other day I was sitting in my office trying to work and just could
not maintain focus. It seemed that
everything I was reading wasn't sinking in.
I could barely keep my eyes open.
I was feeling like I could just put my head down on my desk and take a
nap. I had had a good night's sleep the
night before. I could not figure out why
I was so tired. Then it hit me. I had increased my training intensity over
the last 30 days because I was feeling so good on during my training runs. I thought maybe was suffering from overtraining syndrome.
I went back to my training logs to see if in the past I had ever
encountered anything like this. I wanted
to try and determine if I truly was suffering from overtraining. I knew that a runner like me has very
little conclusive evidence to determine if I am just tired from training or
going over the edge and training too hard. While the signs and symptoms of overtraining
aren’t easy to pinpoint, it is possible to identify which activities present
the greatest danger to overtraining. The
two symptoms I focused on due to my increased efforts were not getting enough
rest between training cycles and too many intense speed workouts. My training logs made it clear that both were
possible causes of the fatigue I was feeling.
After the American Odyssey Relay, I did not rest at all. In fact, I was feeling so strong after that
race I decided to increase my training intensity. I had made the classic mistake of pushing my body to new limits as I trained
for the relay, raced well and then immediately jumped back into hard training
when I got back to Scottsdale. I had not
taken the time to fully recover and absorb all the training I had put in
preparing for the relay. Rookie mistake
and one that is easily avoided. I should
have taken time off from training before increasing it again or at least pulled
back my intensity. What I failed to realize was that by doing this I would
simply carry the fatigue forward which came back to haunt me this week.
I should have given my body a substantial rest period after the relay. I have read that runners should take one week
off for a 5K training cycle, 1-2 weeks off for a 10K or half marathon, and a
full 2 weeks off after a marathon. Because the adventure relays are basically
the same as a marathon, I should have taken a full two weeks off after the
relay. Instead, I had pushed myself
harder not realizing that it could push me over the precipice. Apparently a 53 year old male runner can't
just keep it going indefinitely without some negative repercussions. I was definitely feeling it.
Not only did I not properly recover, I exacerbated the problem by increasing
the intensity of my speed workouts. As I
look back on the past few weeks since the relay, I realize now that I was
definitely in overtraining mode. I was
pushing myself too hard. I should have
realized it when I was having trouble sleeping.
I would wake up much earlier than normal and definitely had trouble
staying asleep through the night. I
ignored it and the result was that I couldn't even function normally at work
despite the fact that my runs had not suffered.
What I now know is that regardless of how "experienced" I am
as a runner, I can still make mistakes. Even
though I had a setback, I did catch it early enough to fix it before it truly
caused damage to me physically. I am now
going to decrease my training intensity and volume until I feel refreshed and
back to normal. I need to forgo some of
my "hard" training days and instead log easy distances until I can
rebound. Most importantly, I vow to never train
harder in an attempt to push through overtraining syndrome. If I can do these three things, I should be
able to get back to intense training soon.
May 25 – 6.20 miles (56:17, 9:05 pace)
May 26 – 6.20 miles (56:33, 9:07 pace)
May 28 – 6.20 miles (58:36, 9:27 pace)
May 29 – 5.10 miles (44:09, 8:39 pace)
May 30 – 7.00 miles (1:05:37, 9:22 pace)
May 31 – 7.10 miles (1:04:54, 9:09 pace)
June 1 – 5.20 miles (45:20, 8:43 pace)
June 2 – 6.20 miles (56:40, 9:08 pace)
June 4 – 6.20 miles (58:28, 9:26 pace)
June 5 – 4.10 miles (35:41, 8:42 pace)
June 6 – 7.10 miles (1:02:36, 8:49 pace)
June 7 – 7.10 miles (1:06:17, 9:20 pace)
June 8 – 5.20 miles (45:44, 8:58 pace)
June 9 – 6.20 miles (56:41, 9:09 pace)
June 11 – 6.20 miles (58:36, 9:27 pace)
June 12 – 5.20 miles (45:45, 8:488 pace)
June 13 – 4.50 miles (1:03:41, 14:10 pace)
June 14 – 6.20 miles (58:46, 9:29 pace)
Total Miles: 107.0 miles
2015 Total Miles: 926.7 miles
